Technologies behind driverless cars, Bitcoin transactions and virtual reality are very much at work in FedEx Freight's truck cabs and freight docks, a senior executive told the Traffic Club of Memphis Wednesday.

The company has a pilot project underway using blockchain to share shipment information among suppliers, FedEx and retailers. Blockchain is a system of encrypted, shared digital transactions that enables Bitcoin currency.

It’s planning to roll out within the next 18 months a new app that customers can use to keep tabs electronically on shipments, which are still 80 percent governed by printed bills of lading.

And it’s closing in on having 100 percent of its 16,000 tractors equipped with four key safety technologies: telematics, collision mitigation, lane departure and roll stability.

Telematics, which help the company remotely monitor truck speeds, fuel consumption and other indicators, are already installed on all tractors, and the other technologies will be fully implemented by year’s end, Healy said.

Technology is a recruiting tool for FedEx in an era of driver shortages.

“With the technology we’re bringing on board, we’re trying to make it more of a captain of the ship versus behind the wheel,” Healy said.

“You hear a lot about vehicle autonomy. I think what we’re focusing on is advanced driver assist systems: ‘How do I make that driver more safe? How do we provide capabilities in the cab for them to operate more safely?’”

FedEx Freight's fleet logged 1.3 billion road miles last year.

Healy, 51, joined FedEx Express as a package handler at the Memphis world hub when he was a sophomore at the University of Memphis. That was 32 years ago.

He’s also board chairman of the Memphis Area Transit Authority.

He moved to Freight three years ago from FedEx Express, where “I was responsible for tools and technology around the globe," he said.

FedEx Freight transports freight for customers that don’t need to fill an entire trailer. The industry lags behind other transportation sectors in the adoption of technology, Healy said.

A big focus at FedEx Freight is shifting to digital platforms from paper bills of lading, the traditional record-keeping format of trucking.

Healy said in about 98 percent of transactions processed by FedEx Ground and FedEx Express, customers input shipment information electronically.

“At the Freight operating company, we’re slightly over 20 percent automating, which we’re pretty proud of, because over the last two years that number was a lot lower. One of the biggest focuses we have going forward is customer automation,” Healy said.

Down the road, blockchain promises to increase efficiency and perhaps trust among shippers, carriers and retailers, he said.

“Ultimately what we believe blockchain will allow us to do is in a controlled way have sheer visibility across the supply chain to key pieces of information that we need,” Healy said.

“We’re working on a pilot with a couple of different companies which I can’t disclose at this point, to create basically some transparency across that network,” Healy said.

“It’s going to take some time to transition into that. Some people, whether you’re a shipper or a transportation company or the recipient, some people are going to be a little anxious about having that information out there, that’s controlled just within those three players, but it’s an important thing,” Healy added.

Healy said FedEx Freight is testing use of virtual reality to train team members such as forklift operators, in hopes of flattening the learning curve of on-the-job training. “We want to make sure we train people before they even get behind the wheel of a forklift,” he said.